Published every Two Months. Sponsored by an International Group of Theosophists.
Objectives: To disseminate the teachings of the Ancient Wisdom. To uphold and
promote the Original Principles of the modern Theosophical Movement, as set
forth by H.P. Blavatsky and her Teachers. To challenge bigotry and superstition
in every form. To foster mutual understanding and co-operation among all
students of Theosophy, irrespective of their affiliation.
Editor: Boris de Zirkoff.
Contributing Editors: Irene R. Ponsonby, J. Emory Clapp, Arthur I. Joquel,
Nancy Browning.
Committee of Sponsors: T. Marriot, G. Cardinal Legros, Jan H. Venema, Col.
J. M. Prentice, Dudley W. Barr, Dr. Sven Eck.
Business Manager: Norine G. Chadil.

None of the organized Theosophical Societies, as such, are responsible
for any ideas expressed in this magazine, unless contained in an official
document. The Editors are responsible for unsigned articles only.

*

THOUGHTS
TO REMEMBER ...

Will is the exclusive possession of man on this our plane of consciousness.
It divides him from the brute in whom instinctive desire only is active.

Desire, in its widest application, is the one creative force in the
Universe. In this sense it is indistinguishable from Will; but we men
never know desire under this form while we remain only men. Therefore
Will and Desire are here considered as opposed.

Thus Will is the offspring of the Divine, the God in man; Desire the
motive power of the animal life.

Most men live in and by desire, mistaking it for will. But he who would
achieve must separate will from desire, and make his will the ruler;
for desire is unstable and ever changing, while will is steady and constant.

Both will and desire are absolute creators, forming the man himself
and his surroundings. But will creates intelligently - desire blindly
and unconsciously. The man, therefore, makes himself in the image of
his desires, unless he creates himself in the likeness of the Divine,
through his will, the child of the light.

His task is twofold: to awaken the will, to strengthen it by use and
conquest, to make it absolute ruler within his body; and, parallel with
this, to purify desire. Knowledge and will are the tools for the accomplishment
of this purification. - Unsigned in Lucifer, London, Vol. I, October,
1887, p. 96.

... man's free will or free choice is not "limited" or restricted
by the surrounding Universe, but is great or small, more evolved or less
evolved, strictly in ratio with the evolutionary status that the man
himself has attained. - G. de Purucker, in The Esoteric Tradition,
p. 695. [3]

*

1951Boris de Zirkoff

The year opens on a familiar note. The tune is old, habitual, well-worn
and found wanting; yet still attractive to many millions and hard to
change for a brighter one.

Were the destinies of mankind decided on the battle field, the picture
would indeed be sombre, and hope would wane in the human heart.

But the historical evolution of the human race depends upon the timely
introduction into the sphere of human thought of dynamic ideas which
illumine the psychological and intellectual landscape of the historic
era during which they appear, and leaven receptive minds across man-made
frontiers and the separative dogma of unyielding moulds and outward forms.

Against these dynamic ideas there is ultimately no defence; far from
invading human consciousness and forcing themselves violently upon human
thinking, they merely project in high-relief the wickedness and narrowness
of lesser modes of thought, and make apparent, by their mere presence,
the emotional and mental immaturity of former patterns, and their inadequacy
to serve as vehicles for the broadening consciousness of humanity.

As voiced by the great Victor Hugo on his death-bed: "There is
but one thing that is more powerful than any invading army. It is the
power of an Idea when its time has come!"

Today, in the background of human conflicts, above the din of selfish
and stupid battles, beyond the narrow creeds of religious fanatics and
the absurd ideologies of political demagogues, sometimes in the very
midst of human misery, confusion and pain, there is heard the clarion-call
of Universal Brotherhood, and the thought of a united mankind is permeating
all strata of human consciousness, even those which present the greatest
opposition to its reception.

The historical era of empire-building is coming to a close, but not
without an eventful struggle, and the deafening roar of conflicting loyalties.
We are entering into a new historic era, wherein universal solidarity
- however frail and experimental in its first stages - will be the keynote
of the day. The blind nationalisms with their military ventures of subjugation,
coercion and violence, the self-righteous theological and scientific
dogmas obscuring the noble traditions of mankind, and the gross materialism
of our social order, are being dynamited from within their own battlements
by the rapid spread, from one receptive mind to another, of Ideas and
Ideals which have no other loyalties but Mankind and no other objectives
but the service of the race as a whole.

As a matter of fact, the entire struggle taking place before our very
eyes, and the moral and mental degradation which we can witness daily
on the stage of human behavior, with the attendant sloth, cowardice,
brutality and decay, are but the scum of the lower animalistic emotions
(slightly humanized!) thrown up to the surface by the dynamic and impelling
force of great spiritual ideas, floating in the very ambient of the Earth
and leavening the mass of human thinking with their potent regenerative
energy. The climacteric conflict in our contemporary history is proof
positive that there exists on the level of human thinking, in the very
collective consciousness of the race, a new spiritual light which can
no longer be ignored and whose increasing radiance penetrates into every
dark corner of the earth.

It is imperative that the student of ancient wisdom refrain from identifying
himself with any of the existing ideologies of the day, and try to observe
the [4] current events with an objective vision, projecting them
against the background of history. Much is lost by emotional reactions
motivated by national pride, false patriotism, inbred psychological tendencies,
the opinions of others, and the misinformation derived from accepted
textbooks wherein most of history has been twisted to serve personal
and vested interests.

It is important to appraise the changing stage-setting of the day in
the light of the age-old teachings of karma and reincarnation, and to
try and trace the golden thread of historic events from one part of mankind
to another, and from one continent to another, as that thread winds and
weaves itself in and out under the impelling force of karmic destiny.

Against this more spiritual background of thought, many of our national,
personal, regional and selfish allegiances will be seen to merge sooner
or later into allegiances more universal and enduring, and the emotional
reactions of our lower mentalities will experience a becalming influence
emanating from our greater vision and wider horizon of thought.

The rise and fall of empires, the hegemony of one race over another,
of one civilization over another, are but the natural ebb and flow of
human evolutionary progress. The waves of human consciousness wash many
a shore, and recede again, to rise on other shores. Beyond this periodic
interplay of conscious and semi-conscious forces, motivated by Intelligences
at work, there is a supreme and harmonious pattern which emerges but
partially, and presents itself but in fragments, to view. But our best
and noblest motives, and the intuitive realization of our hearts, tell
us beyond any possible doubt, that history moves progressively forward,
rising from one level to the next, scaling one crag after another, with
occasional and temporary pitfalls, and that ahead of us all, in the distant
future, lie spiritual heights and vistas greater and nobler than anything
we dare even conceive today.

Assured of a master-plan behind the scene of the visible, firm in our
spiritual objectives, with compassion and impersonal love for all that
lives, let us therefore face the unfolding year of 1951 with courage
and fortitude, with controlled enthusiasm and self-dedication to the
cause of spiritual enlightenment and inner freedom.

*

"Few people, if any, even pretend to feel cheerful
about the world situation as this new year begins. Nevertheless, the
first thing that
needs to be said as we try to orient ourselves is that most of us are
not aware of the depth and urgency of the crisis in which we live ...
Because we do not understand and accept the full depth of the crisis,
we also
fail to realize how simple and yet profound and revolutionary
the solution is ... Nothing short of a rediscovery of Christ, a total
acceptance of him, a Pentecost that will cause power to flow through
us into the stream of history, will suffice now. Unless something happens
on the deep spiritual level, nothing but disaster can take place on the
political level. What is politically feasible or practical - things being
as they are and we being what we are - is death.

"It was an atomic event that occurred in 1945 in
the physical realm. An atomic event must now occur in the political and
spiritual realm,
and it must take place first of all within us. It is probably true that
we both long for and dread this incursion of God. When Augustine experienced
a conversion, he 'trembled exceedingly,' according to his own report.
It would appear that the sense
of God working out a purpose in his life was accompanied, as one commentator
puts it, 'by the premonition that some awful renunciation would still
be demanded of him.' - A.J. Muste, in F.O.R. Fellowship, Jan.,
1951, p. 2. [5]

*

MODERN
APOSTLES AND PSEUDO-MESSIAHSH.P. Blavatsky
[Originally published in Lucifer, London, Vol. VI, No. 35, July 15th,
1890, pp. 379-383, wherein the article was signed by the pseudonym "Spectator".
It is as timely today as it was on the day of its first appearance. We commend
it to the careful attention of our many readers. - Editor]

There has probably never been a period within our recollection more
given to the production of "great missions" and missionaries
than the present. The movement began, apparently, about a hundred years
ago. Before that, it would have been unsafe to make such claims as are
common in the present day. But the revelators of that earlier time were
few and far between compared to those who are to be found now, for they
are legion. The influence of one or two was powerful; of others, whose
beliefs were dangerously akin to a common form of lunacy - next to nothing.
All will recognize a wide difference between Anne Lee, whose followers
flourish at the present time, and Joanna Southcote, whose hallucination
long ago, and in her own day, excited smiles from rational people. The
venerable Shaker lady, the "Woman" of Revelation XII, taught
some truths amid confused ideas as to their practical working. At least,
in a rather loose age, she held up an ideal of pure living which must
always appeal to the spiritual nature and aspirations of man.

Then followed a period of moral decadence in the messianic perceptions
and works. The polygamy taught and practiced by Joseph Smith and Brigham
Young has been one of the strangest features of any modern revelation
or so-called religion. Zeal and martyrdom were both illustrated in these
leaders of the blind - the one without knowledge, and the other worse
than useless. It was a prophecy of more lawless prophets, and more disastrous
followings.

With the spread of the spiritualistic cult, the Messiah craze has vastly
increased, and men and women alike have been involved in its whirlpools.
Given, a strong desire to reform somehow the religious or social aspect
of the world, a personal hatred of certain of its aspects, and a belief
in visions and messages, and the result was sure; the "Messiah" arose
with a universal panacea for the ills of mankind. If he (very often she)
did not make the claim, it was made for him. Carried away by the magnetic
force, the eloquence, the courage, the single idea of the apostle pro
tem, numbers, for very varied reasons, accepted him or her as the
revelator of the hour and of all time.

With burning indignation at the enthralment of womanhood in marriage,
Victoria Woodhull arose to proclaim freedom. The concentrated forces
within and around her withstood insult, calumny, and threats. What her
exact utterances were, or what she meant herself, it is not easy now
to discover. If she indeed preached free love, she only preached woman's
damnation. If she merely tore down social veils, and rifled whited sepulchers,
she did the human race a service. Man has fallen to so material a level
that it is impossible to suppress sexual passion - but its exaltation
is manifestly his ruin. Some saw in her teachings a way of liberty dear
to their own sympathies and desires, and their weaknesses and follies
have for ever dealt a death-blow to any real or imagined doctrine of
free love, upheld no matter by whom. Victoria Woodhull grew silent, and
the latest interpretations of the Garden of Eden and the fall of man,
with which she has broken the silence, do not approach anywhere near
in truth and lucidity to Laurence Oliphant's inspirational catches at
the meaning of some of those ancient allegories in the book of Genesis.
Blind as he was to the key of human life in the philosophy of reincarnation,
with its impregnable logic, he gave some vivid side-glimpses of truth
in his Scientific Religion. [6]

Yet Victoria Woodhull should have her due. She was a power in the land,
and after her appearance, which stirred up thought in the sluggish, it
became more possible to speak and write on the social question, and its
vast issues. So much plain-spoken and acted folly created a hearing for
a little wisdom.

After this, in the spiritualistic field, many lesser lights stood forth.
Some openly advocated sexual freedom, and were surrounded by influences
of the most dangerous order. The peace and happiness of many a home have
been wrecked by these teachings, never more to return. They wrecked the
weak and unwary, who reaped hours of agony, and whom the world falsely
regarded as wicked. The crusade at last against these more open dangers
of spiritualism became fierce, but although publicly denounced - an Oneida
Creek never could become popular! - the disguised poison creeps about
in underhand channels, and is one of the first snares the mediumistic
inquirer into Spiritualism has to beware of. "Affinities" were
to redeem the world; meanwhile they have become a by-word. There is an
unwritten history in Spiritualism which, none of its clever advocates
will ever record. Some of its latest Messiahs and their claims are ignored,
and their names hardly mentioned, but we hear nothing of the hot-house
process by which their abnormal condition was produced. Certain of these
have been, verily, the victims of their belief - persons whose courage
and faith in a more righteous cause would have won them lasting victory.
And certain of these are mad vortices in which the inexperienced are
at last engulfed. The apotheosis of passion, from the bitter fruit of
which, man has everlasting need to be redeemed, is the surest sign of
moral degradation. Liberty to love according to the impulse of the senses,
is the most profound slavery. From the beginning nature has hedged that
pathway with disease and death. Wretched as are countless marriages,
vile as are man-made laws which place marriage on the lowest plane, the
salvation of free-love is the whisper of the snake anew in the ear of
the modern Eve.

No one denies that there are aspects of Spiritualism which have been
useful in some ways. With this, however, we have nothing to do. We are
pointing now to the way in which it has accentuated a common illusion.

The claims to final appropriation of the prophesied year 1881, the two
witnesses, and the woman clothed with the sun, are so varied and diverse
that there is safety in numbers. A true understanding of Kabbalistic
allegory, and the symbolic galleries and chambers of the Great Pyramid,
would at once disperse these ideas, and enlighten these illuminations.
To distinguish the white rays of truth from influx from the astral sphere,
requires a training which ordinary sensitives, whether avowed spiritualists
or not, do not possess. Ignorance emboldens, and the weak will always
worship the bold.

Some of these apostles denounce alike Spiritualism and Theosophy; some
accept the latter, but weave it anew into a version of their own; and
some have apparently arisen, independently of any other cult, through
the force of their own or somebody else's conviction.

No one can doubt the poetical nature of the inspiration of Thomas Lake
Harris. He had an intellectual head and a heart for poetry. Had he kept
clear of great claims, he would have ranked at least as a man of literary
ability, and a reformer with whom other reformers would wish to shake
hands. His poem on Womanhood must echo in every thoughtful heart.
But the assumption of personal privilege and authority over others, and "affinity" theories,
have stranded him on a barren shore.

There is an avowed re-incarnation of Buddha in the United States, and
an avowed re-incarnation of Christ. Both have followers; both have been
interviewed and said their best. They and others like unto them have
had signs, illuminations, [7] knowledge not common to men, and
events pointing in a marked way to this their final destiny. There has
even been a whisper here and there of supernatural births. But they lacked
the clear-seeing eye which could reduce these facts to their right order,
and interpret them aright. Kings and potentates appear, and dreamers
of dreams, but there is never a prophet or Daniel in their midst. And
the result is sorry to behold, for each seems to be putting the crown
upon his own head.

If Theosophy had done nothing else, it would have made a demand on human
gratitude in placing the truth and falsehood of these psychic experiences,
unfoldments, or delusions as the case might be, plainly before the people,
and explaining their rationale. It showed a plane of manhood,
and proved it unassailably to a number of persons, which transcends any
powers or capacities of the inspirational psychic who may imagine himself
or herself to be a messenger to the world at large. It placed personal
purity on a level which barred out nine-tenths of these claimants from
all thought of their presumed inheritance, and showed that such a condition
of purity, far transcending any popular ideal of such virtue, was the
absolute and all-essential basis of spiritual insight and attainment.
It swept the ground from under the feet of those poor men and women who
had been listening to the so-called messages from the angels, that they
were the chosen of heaven, and were to accomplish world-wide missions.
The Joan of Arcs, the Christs, the Buddhas, the Michaels, were fain to
see truths they had not dreamed of, and gifts they had never possessed,
exercised in silence and with potent force by men whose names were unknown
even to history, and recognized only by hidden disciples, or their peers.
Something higher was placed before the sight of these eager reformers
than fame: it was truth. Something higher than the most purified union
between even one man and one woman in the most spiritual of sympathies,
was shown; it was the immortal union of the soul of man with God. Wherever
Theosophy spreads, there it is impossible for the deluded to mislead,
or the deluded to follow. It opens a new path, a forgotten philosophy
which has lived through the ages, a knowledge of the psychic nature of
man, which reveals alike the true status of the Catholic saint, and the
spiritualistic medium the Church condemns. It gathers reformers together,
throws light on their way, and teaches them how to work towards a desirable
end with most effect, but forbids any to assume a crown or sceptre, and
no less delivers from a futile crown of thorns. Mesmerisms and astral
influences fall back, and the sky grows clear enough for higher light.
It hushes the "Lo here! and lo there!" and declares the Christ,
like the kingdom of heaven, to be within. It guards and applies every
aspiration and capacity to serve humanity in any man, and shows him how.
It overthrows the giddy pedestal, and safely cares for the human being
on solid ground. Hence, in this way, and in all other ways, it is the
truest deliverer and saviour of our time.

To enumerate the various "Messiahs" and their beliefs and
works would fill volumes. It is needless. When claims conflict, all,
on the face of it, cannot be true. Some have taught less error than others.
It is almost the only distinction. And some have had fine powers imperilled
and paralyzed by leadings they did not understand.

Of one thing, rationally-minded people, apart from Theosophists, may
be sure. And that is, service for humanity is its all-sufficient reward:
and that empty jars are the most resonant of sound. To know a very little
of the philosophy of life, of man's power to redeem wrongs and to teach
others, to perceive how to thread the tangled maze of existence on this
globe, and to accomplish aught of lasting and spiritual benefit,
is to annihilate all desire or thought of posing as a heaven-sent saviour
of the people. For a very little self-knowledge is a leveler indeed,
and more democratic than the most ultra-radical can desire. The best
practical reformers of the outside abuses we have known, such as slavery,
deprivation of the rights of woman, legal tyrannies, oppressions of the
poor, have never dreamed of [8] posing as Messiahs. Honor, worthless
as it is, followed them unsought, for a tree is known by its fruits and
to this day "their works do follow them". To the soul spending
itself for others those grand words of the poet may be addressed evermore:

"Take comfort - thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
There's not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee - thou has great allies;
Thy friends are exaltations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind!"

With the advent of Theosophy, the Messiah-craze surely has had its day,
and sees its doom. For if it teaches, or has taught, one thing more plainly
than another, it is that the "first shall be last, and the last
first". And in the face of genuine spiritual growth, and true illumination,
the Theosophist grows in power to most truly befriend and help his fellows,
while he becomes the most humble, the most silent, the most guarded of
men.

Saviours to their race, in a sense, have lived and will live. Rarely
has one been known. Rare has been the occasion when thus to be known
has been either expedient or possible. Therefore, fools alone will rush
in "where angels fear to tread". - Spectator.

*

"If atomic weapons, or others of parallel destruction,
were used against the United States or our allies, we would be justified
in using them ourselves, said fourteen members of a commission of sixteen
appointed by the Federal Council of the Churches to consider The Christian
Conscience and Weapons of Mass Destruction. 'We believe that American
military strength, which must include atomic weapons as long as any other
nation may possess them, is an essential factor in the possibility of
preventing world war and tyranny ... If atomic weapons or other weapons
of parallel destruction are used against us or our friends in Europe
or Asia, we believe that it could be justifiable for our government to
use them in retaliation with all possible restraint.' While endorsing
other parts of the report, Dr. Robert L. Calhoun of Yale and Dr. Georgia
Harkness of Garrett Biblical Institute, both F.O.R. members, dissented
from the above expression of opinion. 'The ruling assumption throughout,'
said Dr. Calhoun in his statement, 'is that if we are attacked, we must
do whatever is needed to win. This perspective may be defended on political
and cultural grounds. It can scarcely be regarded as distinctive Christian.
Still less is it ecumenical.' " (F.O.R. Fellowship, Jan.,
1951, p. 24.)

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and
a tooth for a tooth:"But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also ..."Ye have heard that it bath been said, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour, and hate thine enemy."But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you, and persecute you ..."Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." (St.
Matthew 5:38-39; 43-44; 7:12.)

Verily, Christianity and Churchianity are for ever irreconcilable! [9]

*

A
DREAMI. H.

At three o'clock on the morning of November 25, 1950, I awoke from a
vivid dream. Upon arising later and recounting the dream to my wife,
she urged me to write it down, for sometimes we glimpse reality and come
closest to truth when the mind is free from self-consciousness and can
range untrammeled the dream-world. So here is the dream:

I was addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations, representing
no country, no ideology, no special interest. I was quite unknown and
unheralded. It was not even revealed to me in the dream how I happened
to be there. But the Assembly was listening. This seemed quite natural,
for I was uttering universal truths that appeal to the spirit of men
- of all men, by virtue of their very humanhood.

I asked them to forget their differences, however real these might seem
in their lower separative aspects, and to rise in thought to the level
of their spiritual unity, where, as thinking, aspiring human beings,
we are all one. Whatever their human failings and failures, whether as
individuals or as national units, the fact that they were members of
the United Nations' General Assembly suggested that they all aspire to
improve the condition of their fellowmen and to bring about peace and
make it last.

The words I used were clearly in mind when I awoke:

"Every responsible human being, as well as every national group,
respects high and humanitarian purposes, because every thinking man realizes
instinctively, intuitively, that idealism and high purposes are the inalienable
heritage of every human being. Idealism and high purposes are likewise
the most enduring foundation on which to erect a successful world-order.
Let this spirit embody or re-embody itself in the deliberations of the
United Nations, and ways and means of formulating it into effective procedure
and functioning can be arrived at to the satisfaction of all. Dr. Ralph
Bunche has recently demonstrated this to the world.

"Unless such a spirit of idealists and high purposes is invoked
and reinvoked in the councils of the United Nations, the aggregate of
Mr. Hydes into which normal Dr. Jekylls can so easily degenerate may
cause the United Nations to founder on the rocks of utter cynicism and,
thus deprive mankind of its greatest present hope.

"Delegates who represent millions of Christians might reread with
profit the Master's words in the Sermon on the Mount. Those who have
drawn inspiration from the Light of Asia will recall the teaching of
the Lord Buddha: 'Hatred ceaseth never by hatred; hatred ceaseth only
by love.' Let the people of China, where the flower of civilization bloomed
so many centuries ago, hearken once again to their Old Philosopher, Lao-Tze,
who is reputed to have lived and taught the Way even before Confucius:
'The greatest conquerors are those who overcome their enemies without
strife ... This is being the compeer of Heaven. It was the highest goal
of the ancients.' To Hindu, Mohammedan, Jew, Parsee, and what not, I
would say: 'Look each to your own sacred scriptures. Therein you will
find one doctrine common to them all - the Golden Rule, expressed in
different words, but identical in spirit with that found in the Christian
Gospels.

"The spirit in man which has time and time again evoked national
heroes to rise and overthrow systems and rulers who have oppressed and
exploited instead of serving their people - this immortal spirit in man
will eventually rise again wherever the need is greatest and reassert
its right to freedom of thought and freedom from idolatry of persons
and power.

"Does this mean that delegates to the United Nations should have
their heads so much in the clouds of lofty idealism that they fail to
keep their feet on the solid earth of realism? By no means. [10] Even
a Gandhi must have realized that, though might never makes right, might
most assuredly can often prevent a wrong. Such might the United Nations
must have. I am convinced that all the delegates present will be willing
to give the United Nations that power, once they recognize the soundness
of the principles I am trying to set forth. Where there is the will to
understanding and peace, conflicting interests can always be reconciled.

"As my professor of literature once remarked, 'In the card-game
of the universe, love is the ace of trumps.' The greatest minds of recorded
history, the noblest spiritual teachers, have concurred. They have captured
the hearts of generations after generations in all lands, and helped
to make and preserve what is most humanly worthwhile in civilization.
Why not play this ace of trumps in the greatest stake offered us today:
the rebirth of civilization and brotherhood and sanity in a distraught
world?"

*

H. P. BLAVATSKY Collected Writings
For the Year 1883.
AVAILABLE NOVEMBER, 1950.
Published by the PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY, INC. Los Angeles, California.

Initial volume of a uniform American Edition of H.P. Blavatsky's entire
literary work, to consist of a considerable number of volumes. Highly
important and profound teachings from the store-house of the Trans-Himalayan
Esoteric Knowledge, some of them written down by H.P. Blavatsky from
the direct dictation of her own Teacher, and other Adepts of the Occult
Brotherhood.

This Edition is a LIMITED one. A large part of it has already been sold
by means of advance orders. An early order is advisable, to insure securing
a copy before the edition is exhausted.
448 pages. Illustrations. Bibliography. Copious Index.
PRICE: $6.00.
(Add 15 cents for postage. Californians add 3% sales tax) Order from:
" THEOSOPHIA"
136 North Catalina Street, Los Angeles 4, California.
(Make checks or money-orders payable to "Theosophia".) [11]

*

MEMORANDUM
FOR LEADERSRuth Pratt

It may be that there are gods who walk upon the earth, who wear a fleshly
habit and who mingle in and influence the affairs of men. But it is to
be doubted that any of them sit upon thrones or exalted seats. More likely,
these servants of the divine would be discovered working next to a ditch
digger, or being companions to a worker in the fields, in obscurity lifting
the hearts and aspirations of those who are oppressed, who are friendless
or lack courage to look higher.

The dais is reserved for the man who is too great to be a god! The first
gift that must be accepted to gain the first degree of individual exaltation,
the first right to serve God and the divine dominions, is humility. Humility
is not cowardice or lack of self-confidence. On the contrary, humility
is a high and acute awareness of order and self-purpose. It is to know
that the most highly developed and co-ordinated abilities of an individual
are adequate to assist the progression of only an infinitesimal part
of the divine plan. The humble man sees "through" his eyes
not "with" them!

Higher sensitivity, more daring imagination, keener observation and
the ability to translate the invisible into form are not "special" gifts
bestowed upon the favorites of heaven. They are abilities slowly earned
that individuals may more easily study and more accurately learn the
divine rhetoric.

Neither the artist nor the scientist is dedicated to the discovery of
the errors of creation. Taking the Divine to task, whether it be the
Divine in space or the Divine in man, is a thankless and unrewarding
work.

Neither the artist nor the scientist criticizes creation. They are grateful
for the privilege of discovery. Their gratitude speaks through their
works and says, "all things are true, though faintly understood."

The individual who, through the use of logic, attempts to convince humanity
that the universe is an enemy and that individual preservation lies solely
in the development of all faculties for self-power, is deluding himself.
He may succeed in convincing a few followers who, like himself, are seriously
lacking in self-confidence. The followers of this type of leader give
him the needed support for his cowering ego. Their faith in him gives
him the confidence which his own lack of faith has denied him.

True leaders seldom display power. They are rarely accompanied by visible
bodyguards and are never surrounded with pomp.

No person, however influential, is to be condemned for lack of awareness
of Divine purpose. All wrong or selfish concepts will eventually be outgrown.
But those individuals seeking help and direction, who are attracted to
such a leader, may be seriously misled and delayed in their progression.

They who seek to understand the divine truths and beauties should hearken
to the artists and scientists. The true artist is attuned to divine teaching
and transmits much that is disclosed to him into his art forms. The true
and dedicated scientist is lovingly intent upon the discovery of nature's
mathematics and the fundamental patterns of creation. His records of
discoveries will show an emphasis upon the rightness and regularity of
nature.

Humanity ever walks the path of progression, and Divinity ever beckons.
Some will permit the stumbling-block of arrogance and vanity to delay
them, while others will walk the peaceful path of humility with growing
awareness and more Divinely-given trust as their praise.

There are no thrones in heaven! [12]

*

ON
DUALITY, DESIRES AND SELF-ANALYSISA Theosophical discussion
[In the following transcript of a discussion-group for young people, the colloquial
style has been preserved without undue editorial changes.]

W.H.J.: Is not the ethical aspect of Theosophy much more important than
the intellectual? Could you enlarge on what has already been said on
this subject?

B. de Z.: It is imperative to recognize that the Ancient Wisdom is primarily
an ethical system. It is above everything else a system of cause and
effect, of mutual interrelation of everything there is in the Universe,
on an ethical basis. I mean the word "ethics" not as synonymous
with morals. That is a man-made word which varies with the centuries
and the races. But there are primary ethical values in the Universe which
do not vary.

From all the study of Theosophy it appears to what an enormous extent
that system is one based on primary essential ethical values.

There is a thing that happens to practically every one who engages rather
seriously in the study of Theosophy. It may not happen to a beginner,
but it happens to one who is trying to study it in a serious manner.
He is driven sooner or later to self-exploration. He begins to face himself.
He begins to undertake almost unaware, and almost against his judgment,
above and beyond mere reason, a trip of self-exploration. It is remarkable
how many things we can find about ourselves, against the background of
these teachings, of which we have never been conscious at all.

The peculiar moods, the opposite forces at work within ourselves, the
conflict of our own views and opinions, the conflict in our motives,
the strange discontinuity of one part of us from another part. The moment
you begin to be interested along spiritual lines - genuine spiritual
lines - you become more and more aware of the fact that you, the human
being, are not a unitary thing, but several things together. While one
entity or creature or being thinks one way, and feels one way, another
one within yourself, practically at the same time, thinks and feels differently.
There may be a third, and fourth, and fifth, whose tendencies are different
from the others. In the midst of these variations, these varied tendencies,
attractions and repulsions, there is sitting something that you can call "you," or "I," appraising
the situation. Not constantly so, but once in a while. You often wonder
which one of these tendencies is the right and which one is the wrong
one. One of the basic teachings of Theosophy is the teaching of the composite
nature of man.

Man is a composite entity, and we cannot repeat it too often. Man is
a name for an aggregate, a composite pattern, a whole hierarchy of conscious
and semi-conscious levels, actual entities working together or at cross-purposes
with each other, within a composite structure which we call a human being, Man with
a capital "M."

One of the first lessons which comes to students of the ancient wisdom
is the lesson of human duality. Two aspects, to put it simply. You become
aware sooner or later that there is inside of you a tempter and an inspirer.
A tempting element and an inspiring element. Something that pulls you
down from your standards, and something that pulls you up to your higher
standards. If you follow the one, you fall below what you think to be
your standard; if you follow the other, you go above what you thought
was possible. And you feel proud and contented that you registered a
step ahead.

And this lesson is very important to learn; very important indeed. As
long as human consciousness identifies itself with the lower desires,
the lower material life, it does not recognize that duality. But when
you can step aside and behold the conflict, you do not identify [13] yourself
too closely with either side, and behold what is taking place within
you. Self-study is the key to the greater understanding of oneself, and
of course the understanding of everything else that is. It is impossible
to understand anything unless you have understood yourself. When you
have understood the interplay of the various forces within you, you have
understood the play of the same forces throughout the Universe.

L.S.: The study of the Ancient Wisdom often seems to intensify the inner
conflict.

B. de Z.: There is dawning a realization upon us as students, when we
have understood that existing duality in man, that we are almost continuously
in a conflict, during which we do a great many things that our reason
tells us not to do, or would tell us not to do, if we were to listen
to it. On the other hand, we feel a great many urges for beautiful and
fine things which we never do. We do a great many things which we know
ahead of time are not ethically correct, and we abstain from doing a
great many things which we know to be the very ones which would make
us respected and loved and looked up to. And we are tossed amidst a multiplicity
of desires towards the accomplishment of which we are driven by this,
that, and the other temptation. These vary according to the nature of
our character. Some things are no temptation to me at all, but are to
you. Some things are no temptation to you, but they are to me. They vary
according to our character.

And then there are some other things which happen gradually, as we study
these teachings, they open before our mind's eye new opportunities of
growth and widen our consciousness. They broaden our understanding, because
we begin to correlate what we have already known, to other things which
we are just about to learn. We are expanding the sphere and conditions
of thought and higher emotions. All this brings into play a great many
latent seeds from former lives; they sprout, as it were, under the challenge
that we have made within ourselves; the student begins to run into strange
and interesting circumstances of a new kind in his life, of which he
had not dreamt before, and which are sometimes quite perplexing. Serious
study and desire to understand, and to change and improve oneself spiritually
- these things bring about strange circumstances in your life which work
as tests. Don't imagine that there is somebody somewhere testing you.
That is not the idea. You test yourself. You throw out from your inner
nature latent seeds from other lives. These are the tests wherein your
will, your understanding, and your ethical values of character are tested
and tried by yourself. The inner man testing the lower man.

H.T.: Could you mention an example or two of such circumstances?

B. de Z.: I know for instance circumstances whereby students have registered
within themselves a very strong desire to exemplify in their life honesty.
May be in business matters. They have been almost immediately confronted
with circumstances where they had every opportunity given them either
to steal or "pull a fast deal," or to be sharp in some business,
or to hide away the real state of affairs in a business wherein they
were responsible to someone else, which is simply the natural result
of the challenge they had made. Maybe in some other set of circumstances
you had decided that you were going to watch your words - watch the working
of various quirks of your brain-mind, in the way it loves to swerve or
twist things. This was followed by a strong desire, and plenty of opportunity
seemingly coming from outside people, to tell a lie and to twist the
truth for reasons that appeared very good indeed. There are many circumstances
of the same kind involving ethics on any plane, from sex to the more
subtle personality neuroses or complexes. Dissolve those knots of personality
which we have tied [13] in former lives, and in this one; a knot
of dishonesty; a knot of selfish pride, or of this, that, and another
tendency. They are like knots that have to be either untied or cut through,
to achieve liberation. And we all have these qualities. There is not
a human being who does not have these things, short of highly spiritual
people, who have not become what they are in one life alone, and who
are the product of long lives of self-directed evolution. They have worked
on themselves so that today they are free from these knots.

Another thing that is going to happen to a serious student is that he
is going to run every now and then into a set of circumstances which
are very unpleasant and which will try and test his fibre. Particularly
in the case of a student who is desirous of learning self-consciously
what he is actually made of, and to grow, not in an unconscious way,
but in a scientific way, spiritually - not floating about, but moving
ahead knowingly. If you carefully analyze this situation, you will find
that the key to an enlargement of consciousness lies usually in the direction
of control of desires. Now thereby hangs a long, long tale. Some people
desire one type of things, and others desire something entirely different.
Some have desires along low and gross emotional lines. Other people's
desires are selfish intellectual desires. Others have psychic desires.
And other people again have desires for selfish spiritual growth for
themselves alone. There is a whole gamut. By desire I do not mean necessarily
anything low. I mean a self-centered wish or longing to have or hold
or to become something for yourself alone, to the exclusion of others.
And I might add that a student can outgrow a great many objects of desire,
and not outgrow desire itself. That is one of the most subtle stages
- although a more advanced one - wherein the student feels an intense
desire, but he does not know for what. It is an exceedingly dangerous
stage. Desire usually has a purpose of acquiring this, that and the other.
When that stage has been outgrown, there still remains the stage of desire,
with no particular purpose. It is just as consuming as any other, even
more so. It is like having a fever without any particular disease. If
any one of us wants to know how far he has progressed along the line
of evolution, let him look at his desires: how easy or difficult is it
for us to meet any given temptation. You might almost define purity -
inner purity of heart - as "the power to look with unmoved heart
upon temptation." The mistake is commonly made of thinking that
temptations arise from outside, that it is something coming at you, and
that you have to face it. That is a sheer illusion. Anything that comes
at you is simply a reflection of what you have within yourself at any
time. Temptations arise from unsatisfied desires within our own heart
- whether we know them consciously or not. Sometimes outer conditions
bring us face to face with ourselves so that we know what unsatisfied
desires we have. Temptations are rooted in the unsatisfied desires of
the lower human element. I do not mean that all desires are evil. They
are not. I have spoken primarily of desires with selfish tendencies.
Owing to the poverty of the English language, one has to apply the same
term "desire" when speaking of many different types of desire.
They should be called by some other word, but we do not have any adequate
word for this.

*

Heaven consists in desiring from the heart the good of others more than
one's own, and in serving others with a view to their happiness; not
with recompense as an end, but from love. The God in you is greater than
all your difficulties. - Swedenborg. [15]

*

THEOSOPHY
ON THE HOOFE. Hoffman Price

Upon joining the Theosophical Society, I put my membership in with that
lodge, 2400 miles away, through which I first made contact. Circumstances
meanwhile have kept me from taking the 30 mile drive to the San Francisco
lodge. So, I have developed Theosophy on the Hoof.

A pair of teenagers heard me put the words karma and reincarnation into
play. Betty was going to Mills College. Harvey, to San Jose State. They
had minds I envied. And also, regretted for the time! Every lapse into
lodge jargon, the kind that lodge goers use so casually, was followed
by the demand that I define my terms. They were intensely interested
- so much so that they wanted to make sure they knew what I was talking
about. Well, now, I sweated my way through one of the most brutal three
hours I can remember. My task was being sure that I knew what I was talking
about! I had to cut loose from background jargon and build a clear picture
of each concept. Try that some time.

Betty wrote a theme on "Karma" for Freshman English, and got
an "A". Her great reward was that the instructor's comment
on the margin displayed shocking ignorance of what was now to Betty a
most elementary subject. The two youngsters have been married now for
a couple of years, and we have gone a long way from basic definitions.
Both, just for the record, are Roman Catholic. At our last session, my
ordeal was to give the Theosophical-esoteric interpretation of half a
dozen of the basic R.C. dogmas.

Then there was the Diesel mechanic I coached in trigonometry.
Astrology fascinates virtually everyone, even the sceptics. So, after
the sines
and cosines had been disciplined, I would chat with him and his wife,
discussing his horoscope and the fine potentialities he had. Karma and reincarnation,
again: the "why" of astrology makes these crop up. He had skimped
his way through high school, and belatedly, was rounding out his education.
So, simple language was in order. Theosophy in truck drivers' and mechanics'
language appealed to him - and, to her.

A year later, my phone rang at 5:00 A.M. His wife was calling, to tell
me she had been a widow for a few hours, since his death on a construction
job, 200 miles from home. En route to make funeral arrangements, she
asked me those questions which I believe every newly made widow has asked
since the very first of all widows wondered why it had to happen to her.
Theosophy on the Hoof paid dividends, that dreadful day. The event was
easier to face. And without resentment. And without despair.

"Think never there was a time when you, and
I, and all these kings of men were not ..." The quote was
mangled then as now, but Sri Krishna's words had meaning that day:
because the preparation
had been non-academic, non-dogmatic, un-technical, so that the two
listened with eager interest.

My astrological clients - much or most of my practice is on a non-profit
basis - are rebellious, self-sympathetic, frustrated, or else grimly
groping in circles, futilely self-reliant. I skip fohat, prana,
rounds and root races, and give them Theosophy for Truck Drivers. The
other night, I was the speaker at a Tri-Hi-Y Club, a group of high school
girls. My "act" is to delineate two horoscopes of members whose
identities are unknown to any but the committee, and to describe them
until their fellow members recognize them. After the business meeting,
half a dozen crowded around for more. One persistent young lady wangled
herself an impromptu horoscope, calculated then and there. She also got
a dissertation, in terms of her own problems, on the "vehicles":
you are not your body, you are not your emotions, you are not your mind.
The old, old simple stuff, in homely terms.

Inevitably, the lodge-going Theosophist is somewhat like those aristocrats
of Boston, of whom it has been said, [16] "The Lowells speak
but to the Cabots, and the Cabots speak only to God." Not from snobbishness,
I am sure, but simply because others could not understand.

True, I miss all the fine benefits of lodge association. I have become
so illiterate, Theosophically, that when the president mails me a lesson
sheet, I have a skull cracking time with it. But I have had a lot of
fun with Theosophy on the Hoof. There are hundreds of "untagged
Theosophists" - Theosophists at heart, yet not academically minded,
and, not joiners. Not that it makes any difference, but at times I fancy
that when three or four of such gather, though in entire ignorance of
the Masters, there is nonetheless a center of force set up. A very feeble
little center - but nothing is ever wasted.

Lodge association is grand, because one meets people who "speak
one's own language." Yet meeting people who do NOT speak one's language
can be exceedingly rich. You, isolated ones, try it consciously, persistently,
studiedly! You won't be jeered at as a crackpot. You will be welcomed
as a pleasant variant from standard conversationalists.

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